Folding chair.



C.H.& H.R.RHODE& FOLDING CHAIR. APPucATloN HLED FEB.18,19|L

l 178,264. Patented Apr. 4, 1916.

QLNITNE'SSES: ,\7

(Urn

ATTORNEYS THE COLUMBIA PLANoGnAPH co.. WASHINGTON, D. c.

,iiEjiTi-in sTaTEs T aTEET oTTioE.

'CHARLES H. RHODES AND HARTLEY R. RHODEs,` OE COLD BROOK, NEW YORK; sAiDcHARLEsH. RHODES AssIGNoR OF ONE-HALE OE THE ENTIRERIGHT To JOHN E.

FISI-IER, `OF COLD BROOK, NEW YORK.

FOLDING CHAIR.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, `(IIARLES H.

of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inFolding Chairs; and we'do hereby declare that the following is a full,`clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable others skilledin the art to which it appertains to make and use the saine, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, and tothe refererence-nuineralsmarked thereon, which form part of this specification.

The `purpose iof` our present invention to provide a folding chair ofimprovedy con.; struction and of great strength and rigidity.

A further object is to procure such coperation of the parts of the chairas to render it well able to stand the strain of use and in fact to makeit stiffer and more rigid when in use.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a chair einbodying our invention, partof one leg being broken away to more clearly show the construction. Fig.2 is a rear elevation of the chair shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is asectional view on line 3-3 of Fig. 1. Fig. L1- is an enlarged detail ofFig. 1. Fig. 5 is a side elevation of the chair when folded.

Referring to the drawings in a more detailed description the chair hastwo oppositely disposed pairs of legs, the legs of each pair beingpivotally connected to each other at 7, and the upper front ends 8 ofthe legs of the oppositely disposed pair being rigidly connected by afront cross bar 9 to which is secured in any desired manner the frontend of the flexible seat 10.

The chair back, formed as a rigid 1nem ber has sides 11 and cross slats12. The sides 11 passing downwardly within the extended upper rear ends13 of the legs, are pivotally connected thereto at points 14 above thelevel of the seat 10 and extend a short distance below the level of saidseat where said sides 11 are rigidly connected by the rear cross bar 15.This rear cross bar 15 extends forwardly for part of its thicknessbetween the upper rear ends 13 of the legs so that the forward part 16of the ends of said rear cross bar are in close or wedging engagementwith the inner surface of the upper rear ends 13 of the legsSpecification of Letters Patent.

Application filed February 18, 1915.

.legs 13 gives, the entire chair.

PateiitedApr. L1,1916. Serial No. 8,987. vi i when the chair is `set upfor use. To the rear of the faces 16 the cross bar15 extends outwardlyback of the upper rear ends 13 of the legs forming a projection 17 whichwhen the chair is set up for use acts as a stop to hold the chairupright by coming into'engagement with the rear edge of the upper rearends 13 of the legs. l/Vhen the chair is set up the engagement of theprojecting stops 17 with the rear upper ends 13 of the legs prevents thechair opening any farther than is planned and the close or wedging fitbetween the faces 16 of the cross bar 15 and the adjacent upper reargreat stiffness` or .rigidity to "It `will be understood that in foldingchairs the pivotally connected parts must be relatively loosely jointedin order to allow the chair to be easily and quickly folded or unfolded.rllhis necessary looseiiess of pivoting points, however, prevents thechair having the desired amount of rigidity when it is set up and inuse. The wedging action above described braces the legs against the rearcross bar 15 and forces the upper rear ends 13 of the legs outwardly andplaces their pivotal connection at 14 with the sides 11 of the backunder tension thereby greatly stiffening the chair when set up andreducing to a minimum any sidewise motion of the chair upon the legs orany twisting action in the chair. As this wedgiiig action against theupper ends 13 of the legs is taken directly as an end thrust upon thefaces 16 of the cross bar great stiffness is obtained at this point.Likewise at the pivoting connection 14 the outward strain upon the upperrear ends 13 of the legs communicated through the bolts or rivets at 14;to the sides 11 of the chair back is exerted against the relativelyunyielding portion of the sides 11 because these sides are inimediatelybelow this point rigidly connected to the rear cross bar 15.

Preferably the rear portion of the cross bar 15' is cut away adjacent toits ends to form a shoulder 18 against which the inner side of the lowerend of the sides 11 fit while the forward part of this lower end of thesides 11 is cut away to form a shoulder 19 resting down upon the upperside of the cross bar 15 and leaving the rearward part of this end ofthe side 11 to bear forward against the rear side of the cross bar 15.We further prefer to make the cross bar l5 in two parts extendinglongitudinally of the bar and clamped together as by bolts 20 so as tohold between the two parts of the bar the rear end of the iiexible seat10.

Preferably also the opposing faces of the two parts of this rear crossbar are respectively grooved and tongued as clearly shown in Figs. 3 and4 to obtain a more secure hold upon the seat material.

A round 21 connects the legs near their lower rear ends, but no roundconnects the lower front ends of the legs.

To fold the chair the crossed legs are brought toward each other at thetop and passed slightly by each other and the top of the back foldedforwardly until the parts assume the position clearly indicated in Fig.5.

What we claim as new and desire to se-` cure by Letters Patent is:

The combination in a folding chair of two pairs of crossed and pivotallyconnected legs, a flexible seat, a cross bar rigidly conchair is set up,and having its rearward part extending back of the upper rear ends ofthe legs and into engagement therewith to form stops holding the chairupright.

1n witness whereof we have affixed our signatures, in the presence oftwo witnesses, this 29th day of Jan. 1915.

CHARLES H. RHoDEs. HARTLEY R. RHoDEs.

Witnesses:

ELIZABETH C. JoNEs, HERBERT N. RHODES.

Copies ot this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing'the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

